Playing Catch Up

Oh dear, I've been a horrible blogger! It has officially been one whole month since I've updated!!! SORRY! Time to play catch up.

Last I left you, I was leaving on Christmas holiday. On the day I left (Friday), I got VERY little sleep. (I think I went to bed around 5am and got up at 7.) I went to school, and had just enough time to come home afterward, make myself some dinner, and grab my backpack before heading off to the train station.

I had decided to take an overnight train to Paris, and then an early morning train to Lyon as opposed to leaving on Saturday morning because it got me to Lyon probably a good 7 hours earlier, and I thought I could use that time to explore. And after having essentially pulled an all-nighter, I figured sleeping on the train would be no problem.

Boy, was I wrong. I went the cheap route and got a reclining seat instead of a bed. While the reclining seat was arguably extremely comfortable all things considered, I still didn't sleep well. Not all the lights were off, there were frequent stops (resulting in cold air rushing in the door and a fair bit of noise), and it was still fairly uncomfortable for sleeping (since I sleep on my side and not my back). Oh well, live and learn. Next time I'll splurge for a couchette (bed). (Or maybe next time, I'll just take a morning train instead of an overnight one.)

I got to Lyon alright (though I was starting to get sick -- a phenomena that literally started Friday morning right before I went to bed), and went to pick up my key for the apartment that I was staying in. I was planning on spending the full day wandering about, so I left my luggage in a locker in the train station (I'd have to pass by there to get the bus to the apartment anyway) and headed off to the tourism office to get a map.

Armed with a map and some information about the city card to look over later, I headed down toward the Christmas market (one of the largest in the country, I was informed) and wandered around there for a while. And then I pretty much felt exhausted, so I figured I'd try to head over to the apartment to get settled in and maybe take a nap before dinner. (I ended up falling asleep and not waking up until like 9pm...whoops! So much for dinner...)

The giant ferris wheel near the tourism office

The only way to keep your hands warm --  vin chaud (mulled wine)

Christmas market

The biggest cotton candy I've ever seen

The place I stayed was super nice -- the room I rented was a dorm room with 3 bunk beds, but I had the room to myself for the most part since it was so close to Christmas. The lady who was living there was also very nice, though I rarely saw her.

Sunday, I took the funicular up to Fourvière (the big hill/mountain west of the Saône river) where I looked around the basilica and roman amphitheaters. The basilica was quite lovely and had a nice space to look out over the city, and the amphitheaters were incredible. (Have I mentioned yet how I love old things???) You can totally just walk all in and around the theaters (there's two right next to each other), and it's just the coolest thing.

The basilica

Inside the basilica

 

The nativity scene

Overlooking the theater

The theater

On stage again! :)

After exploring Fourvière a bit, I headed down the mountain/hill into the old town where I popped into the cathedral. They were having a Christmas concert in about an hour, so I wandered the old streets for a bit until coming back to try to get a seat (ha!). I had no idea how many people would actually be coming, but the cathedral was completely packed -- standing room only. The concert was quite good (especially after the creepy guy who was trying to chat me up took the hint and left). There were a few different choirs -- a children's choir, a girl's choir, a boy's choir, and an adult choir. They mostly sang songs I didn't recognize, but they did sing a few Christmas carols as well (in French, of course).

The cathedral

 

Creepy guy took a picture of me

After the concert, I was feeling quite adventurous, so I headed to a traditional Lyonnaise bouchon (basically a restaurant that serves traditional food). Looking at the menu, I was torn between the andouille (sausage made out of stomach and intestines) and tripe. Mostly, I was a bit scared of andouille since my first (and only) exposure to it was when Angela accidentally ordered it and I took one whiff and declared that it would never make its way into my mouth.

In the end, I went with the tripe. It was...surprisingly delicious. The texture was a bit weird, but overall I really liked it. I even ate (almost) all of it! (The only reason I couldn't finish it was because it was so filling.) So that was pretty much my food adventure for the trip -- I would've liked to try more, but most of the bouchons seemed to offer the same three dishes (tripe, andouille, and some kind of fish). Maybe I just didn't walk far enough.

Tripe!

The next few days passed in a blur of ridiculously good weather (sunny and in the 50s/60s!). I went and explored the Gallo-Roman museum (seriously the coolest thing on earth), took a bus ride around the city, spend TONS of time in the old part of town, and took a walking tour of the other big hill -- La Croix Rousse. I also spent a bit of time browsing in old book shops.

Antoine de St. Exupéry (author of The Little Prince) on the wall of famous Lyonnais

Fourvière Basilica from a distance

Chariot

View from La Croix Rousse

The famous Traboules (outdoor walkways) of Lyon

Where Christians were martyred

In front of the wall of famous Lyonnais

On Christmas morning, I boarded a train to Geneva where it was raining cats and dogs. And of course, I didn't think to bring my umbrella. Sodden, I showed up to my hostel where I checked in and dropped all my stuff before braving the rain to find somewhere to eat Christmas dinner. (The only restaurant open around the hostel was a pizza place.)

Pretty much as soon as I got to Geneva, my cold (which seemed to have disappeared while I was in sunny Lyon) came back with a vengeance. So I spent Christmas resting and hoping for better weather in the coming days. It was alright though -- I had counted on Christmas being a waste of a day since nothing would be open.

The next day, it was still raining. Not quite as heavily, but still pretty hard. Also by this time, I had done some more research into things to do in Geneva. I had done some initial research before I left, but I started looking for more specific hours. Turns out, almost everything that I was most excited about doing (CERN + its exhibitions, cable car up to Mont Salève) were impossible to do. CERN, though listed as only closed on Christmas (according to the tourism website) was actually closed from December 23rd to January 6th (per the CERN website). The cable car was not working because it was being repaired -- down from November 2013 until ~March 2014. And of course, there is no other way to get up to Mont Salève. Even train tickets to Montreux (listed at 26 Swiss Francs round trip online) would have been nearly 60€ round trip.

Rousseau island was home to many birds

Statue of Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Church near the train station

The famous Jet d'eau ("water fountain")

In the English gardens

Slowly but surely my health, energy, and drive to do anything but sleep and drink tea ebbed away.  And of course, since I was in a hostel (and would be staying in another hostel in Marseille), I became very conscious of how sick I was. I have been the person to catch a cold while staying in a hostel, and it's never fun. Between my lack of energy, lack of enthusiasm about the city (it's beautiful, but CRAZY expensive), and (let's face it) homesickness/loneliness being away from my family for the holidays, I was freaking drained. To top it all off, stress about grad school applications caught up to me, and I was pretty much miserable. So, I decided to pack it in and come home where I could curl up, drink insane amounts of tea and juice, and sleep the cold/stress/homesickness away.

Luckily, my tickets were refundable/transferable, so I was able to switch my train tickets with minimal fees (I basically just had to pay the difference between what I paid for my tickets and the price of the ticket home). The hostel was even nice enough to refund me for the nights I wasn't spending in the hostel (since you pay up front), and I had enough foresight to pay for travel insurance on my hostel reservations for Marseille, so I got all of my deposit back (all I lost was the 1€ for insurance).

Armed with the fact that I'd be home soon, I headed out on Saturday to the old part of Geneva. I had just enough energy to climb up to St. Pierre's Cathedral, spend a couple hours in the archeological museum below the cathedral, and find some lunch before my body decided it didn't want to walk anymore. And that was pretty much it. I had one afternoon of sunshine in Geneva (and made it over to the lake), but otherwise it just rained the whole time. The architecture was gorgeous, and I really wanted to like the city, but I mostly just found it to be lackluster. That may or may not have been due mostly to my mood. (My friend didn't really like Geneva either when she went, so perhaps it isn't just me???)



In any case, I'll put more recent updates into a different post. Sorry for being such a bad blogger! (I haven't even really been that busy; mostly just sleeping.) (I'll also update this with more pictures tomorrow -- for some reason pictures are taking forever to upload. I spent about 3 hours uploading the first 14 photos.)